Viruses. Again!

[Stephen Airy]

one way to see the extentions (at least on some Windows computers....)

1.  open "My Computer" or Windows Explorer.
2.  Click on the Tools menu (or the View menu) and select "Options" or
"Folder Options"
3.  click the View tab
4.  make sure "hide file extensions for known file types" is NOT checked 
 (or something similar to that)
5.  click OK

With Windows showing file extensions, I have actually seen the full
filenames of viruses coming in my email (using Eudora as an email client)
that were trying to hide behind a .txt, .doc, etc. extension.

----- Original message -----
From: "Andy Rudoff" <andy@rudoff.com>
To: "Pianotech" <pianotech@ptg.org>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2003 06:15:27 -0600 (MDT)
Subject: Re: Viruses. Again!

This is excellent advice from Avery.  And also remember that the virus
messages often try to hide the extension from you by naming them things
like "file.txt.pif" so if your mail reader doesn't show the extension,
the .pif gets left off and you think it a harmless .txt attachment.
These viruses take advantage of the fact that opening several types
of attachments actually *run them* on Windows, and since Windows has no
notion of priviledges, any running program can do anything to the
machine,
including replacing parts of the operating system itself!

The PTG server catches any post with executable attachments, so
we haven't had a virus come through any of the PTG lists in years.
But remember that these nasty programs also tend to forge the headers
on the mail they send, so the message may appear to come from anywhere,
even people or lists that you trust.

Keep those machines up to patch!  Both Windows and MacOS have very easy
to use OS update mechanisms (when their servers are not getting
attacked).
And virus protection programs are inexpensive and very worthwhile.

-andy

>List,
>
>Be very careful about opening any e-mail with a
>.pif or .scr extension. I received 16 warnings
>from my server that I'd been sent the SoBig virus,
>12 with .pif extensions and 3 with .scr, plus 1
>"oddball". It was all spam, as is usual. I'm
>sure glad my server has virus protection.
>
>MPT's server has also been under attack according
>to a post from Phil Bondi.
>
>Avery 
>
>_______________________________________________
>pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
>

_______________________________________________
pianotech list info: https://www.moypiano.com/resources/#archives
-- 
  Stephen Airy
  stephenairy@fastmail.fm